THE FACTORY GIRL’S TRYST / THE SALFORD LASS.

Canvas image: Salford Museum & Art Gallery / photos: Jonathan Russell.

  • Title(s): The Factory Girl’s Tryst (this web site; 1881 exhibition catalogue); Manchester Art Gallery, 1923); The Tryst (The Factory Girl’s Tryst) (Manchester Art Gallery when on display during 2018-2019 exhibition); Tryst (Salford Museum & Art Gallery); Tryst, Salford Lass (Sheffield Independent, 29 Dec 1880).
  • Description: A young woman with a blue shawl draped over the back of her head, arms folded across her middle, stands facing the viewer in a night scene, distantly on her left a windmill in pale silhouette, three other distant lights reflected in a lake, almost indiscernible in the darkness of the background, behind her.
  • Media: oil on canvas (Salford Museum & Art Gallery).
  • Dimensions: “H 114 x W 78.5 cm” (Salford Museum & Art Gallery).
  • Signature/date/other text: “Annie L Robinson / 1880”.
  • History:
    • 1880 – Signed and dated 1880.
    • 1880 – “gift from H. Boddington, Jnr, 1880” (Salford Museum & Art Gallery).; “The picture by Miss Robinson, entitled the “Tryst,” or the “Salford Lass,” has been purchased by Mr. Henry Boddington, Jun., for presentation to the Art Gallery at Peel Park, Salford.” Sheffield Independent, 29 Dec 1880, p4.
    • 1881 – Exhibited Grosvenor Gallery – Summer Exhibition, no. 985, “The factory girl’s tryst / A. L. Robinson / Robinson, A. L. 77, Park-st., Greenhays, Manchester” (catalogue).
    • 1923 – Exhibited Manchester Art Gallery – Paintings by Mrs Swynnerton, no. 59, “The Tryst. / Painted in London. / Lent by the Corporation of Salford”.
    • 2018-2019 – Exhibited Manchester Art Gallery, 23 Feb 2018 to 6 Jan 2019.
  • Location: Salford Museum & Art Gallery.

“In the background, to the right, is a windmill overlooking a body of water. Swynnerton may have taken inspiration from a legend linked to a local landmark, a windmill that once overlooked the banks of the river Irwell at Peel Park, Salford. The windmill was the meeting place of a son of the local landowning Stanley family and a miller’s daughter. Separated by social conventions, the lovers took their own lives … With thanks to Danny Morrell’s unpublished research on the windmill and legend.” (Text from notice by painting while on loan to Manchester Art Gallery, Feb 2018 to Jan 2019.)

Page last updated 4 Jun 2025.